This whole situation with Mitt Romney, Bain Capital, and the CEO timeline isn’t really about the controversy over when Romney left. The mainstream media is focused in on whether Romney actually presided over the outsourcing of jobs after 1999, even though he says he left the company that year.
Forget all of that for a moment. The real issue is trust and authenticity.
Romney has always had these problems with the base to begin with. If the Obama campaign can convince Independent voters that the guy is a liar and untrustworthy, then it works to their advantage. Unfortunately for Romney, he has given Democrats plenty of ammunition in this area of whether you can believe his word.
As for releasing his tax returns, it goes to the same issue of trust. Every day that goes by where Romney doesn’t release these years of his tax returns will simply be another day where some voters wonder whether he is hiding something. That’s not a good place for Romney of all people to be. The last thing he needs is a voter to suspect that he’s a rich guy who has something to hide.
Look, here’s the deal: maybe there’s something in those tax returns that makes Romney unflattering to some in the middle class but maybe he just needs to take the hit and suffer the short-term consequences.
The long-term consequences of voters being suspicious about a Romney could be far worse. In the meantime, advantage Obama.